About the work
A masque for the entertainment of King Charles II in a prologue and three acts by John Blow, often called the earliest surviving fully sung English opera and a model for Henry Purcell's "Dido and Aeneas". The undated score labels the work "A Masque for the entertainment of the King"; its first attested performance probably dates from 1683 at the London court.
Plot
Drawing on Ovid's "Metamorphoses", the lovers Venus and Adonis share a scene charged with foreboding before Adonis rides out to hunt against Venus's warning. A boar mortally wounds him, and the opera closes with Venus's lament over her dead lover.
Cultural significance
At its first performance, members of the court themselves sang and danced the roles: Moll Davies, mistress of Charles II, sang Venus, and her nine-year-old daughter Lady Mary Tudor sang Cupid. The concise, chamber-scaled work is regarded as a musical-historical link between the courtly masque and fully composed opera.